Salon Stunner - 1931 Franklin De Luxe

Franklin's show car for 1931: the Derham-bodied Series 15 Model 153 De Luxe Sportsman's Coupé

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

Imagine that you were a member of New York's elite society in December 1930, flush with wealth and status. Dressed in black tie and holding your exclusive invitation to the 1931 New York Automobile Salon, you enter The Commodore Hotel's ballroom and scan the rows of automobiles, crystal chandeliers glittering in chrome and exotic floral arrangements reflecting in glassy paint. Among the Duesenbergs and Senior Packards, you spot a Franklin, the custom Derham-bodied De Luxe Sportsman's Coupé. Eighty-two years on, that special Franklin has been restored to its designer's ideal and remains a spectacular example of the coachbuilder's art.

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For all of its expense and technical brilliance, the typically owner-driven Franklin automobile isn't one that is commonly associated with custom bodies and invitation-only car shows. Their unusual appearance through the early 1920s resulted from their trademark air-cooled engines, but by the middle of that decade, Franklin dealers were demanding more conventional styling and longer wheelbases that could accomodate custom-commissioned bodies. They got their wish when Parisian designer J. Frank de Causse brought fresh style to Franklin in 1925.
The majority of Franklins sold were four-door sedans with bodies sourced from the Walker Body Co. in Merrimac, Massachusetts; but by establishing a custom body department that commissioned body designs from prominent American coachbuilders like Brunn, Derham, Dietrich, Locke, Merrimac and Willoughby, de Causse ensured that this offbeat-yet-conservative luxury brand could play in the same leagues as Cadillac or Packard.
Although the Great Depression's effects were being felt in 1930--Franklin's sales dropped from 1929's high of 14,432 to just 6,036 cars, a clear bellwether--the automaker commissioned a special car for the 1931 Salon circuit, which began that autumn. The Derham Body Co. of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, would design and build a special closed two-door car on their freshened-for-1931 long-wheelbase Series 15 Airman De Luxe chassis; the resulting car would be unveiled at the November 1930 Chicago Salon, held at the Drake Hotel, and following that, shown in New York in December. Derham would display four vehicles that year: A Lincoln convertible phaeton, semi-convertible Packard sport sedan and Duesenberg dual cowl sport phaeton joined their rakish Franklin Sportsman's Coupé.
That Coupé, which Franklin called the Victoria Brougham in its literature, was received warmly at its showings, and would lead an extraordinary life before coming into the possession of Floral Park, New York's Walter Gosden (see "Personality Profile," HCC #76). Strongly interested in both Franklins and Classic-era coachbuilding, Walt was thrilled to see this 1931 Derham-bodied Franklin Victoria Brougham appear for sale in 1973. "I had seen pictures of it in 1965, reading a Franklin Club magazine from the early 1950s, so I knew the car existed," he recalls. "It had sold and disappeared. The custom body was a style I always liked, and when the car resurfaced after years in hibernation, I had to have it."
Walt bought the former show car that November. "It ran and stopped, sort of," he remembers. "It had a thick vinyl roof covering, and had been repainted in 1948. The tires were undersized, so it steered strangely." He promptly wrote for information to Mr. Enos Derham, the man who designed the body, and whose family firm constructed and subsequently displayed it at the annual Salons.
Derham replied with a two-page handwritten letter, explaining the numbers stamped on the car body's ash wood framework: "Your Franklin is without doubt the one we built for the 1930-'31 Salon. The figure #1 following the 842 signifies that it is the first body built in the 842 series of our production, in this case a series of 3, the first one a show car. It was completed by us and shipped by rail to Syracuse, where it was mounted on the chassis before going to N.Y."
That winter, Walt repaired the brakes and fitted new tires. "My plan was to drive to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to show the car to Mr. Derham, but he passed away in March of 1974, before I could do so."
The situation the letter explained was unusual. "Normally there would be plenty of time to send a chassis down to the coachbuilder, and they could fit the body," Walt explains. "But the Series 15 Franklin De Luxe came out that fall with new clamshell fenders, and they wanted to make the November Salon in Chicago, so they had to rush." The artisans at Derham built this ash-framed aluminum body from scratch without the chassis as a guideline, and the car would retain only the standard Walker Body Co.-issue 1931 Franklin fenders, headlamps, grille and dashboard.
The "body-in-white" was delivered to the Franklin factory. There, the fenders, running boards and trunk were installed, the car painted and its roof covered in genuine leather. As finished, its body sides were painted dark blue, with lighter blue window moldings; the fenders, hood, cowl and roof were medium tan, while the distinctive trunk was dark blue with tan trim.
It made an impression at the Salons, as reported by Eric Hatch in Country Life magazine: "The distinguishing details of this Franklin Victoria Brougham are contrasting color treatment of the body, European roof line, dual-tone blue-gray leather seats, with sides and heading in English sports fabric of pepper-and-salt pattern."
After leaving the New York Salon, the car went to the Franklin agent in Allentown, Pennsylvania--Fenstermacher & Rems--where it was listed at $4,800, a big drop from the $5,800 price tag it originally carried, but still an eye-watering price in comparison to $1,950 for a rolling chassis and $2,695 for a standard production De Luxe five- passenger Sedan... or the $520 Ford charged for a Model A De Luxe Coupe.
The Franklin was purchased in the spring of 1931 by Allentown resident William Erdell, president of the Penn-Allen Cement Company (later Portland Cement). Erdell and his wife kept it until his death in 1942, when a mechanic at Fenstermacher & Rems bought it and drove it through the war years. Walt learned that, in the late 1940s, the car was sold off that dealer lot (for $35!) to the Wendling brothers; these former Fleetwood Body Co. employees repainted it in enamel, replaced the roof covering and repaired some of the structural wood.
When Walt bought the car, about 60 percent of the aluminum body's wooden frame was rotten, so restoring it was a high priority, after ensuring its mechanical health. In 1977, he disassembled the engine and brought it to Franklin master mechanic Kenneth "Dutch" Kern of Coopersberg, Pennsylvania. "Dutch knew the car from new," Walt says. "He rebuilt my engine with mid-1950s Nash Ambassador pistons, because he found they fit -nobody who owns a Nash Ambassador from the mid-1950s is going to find NOS pistons for their Nash, because they're all running around in Franklins. Dutch also determined that mid-1950s Pontiac insert bearings fit if you bore out the original babbitt and machine the rods--I think we used all of those up, too."
This straight-six engine illustrated Franklin's longtime practice, combining an aluminum crankcase with individual cooling-finned nickel-iron cylinder housings and an aluminum cylinder head containing overhead valves. Displacing 274-cu.in., it had a 5.3:1 compression ratio and a 1½-inch Stromberg carburetor, and made 100hp at 3,100 RPM and 182-lbs.ft. of torque at 1,600 RPM. It was mated to a Warner four-speed gearbox that sent power to the rear wheels through a spiral bevel differential and semi-floating drive axles.
The rest of the car's underpinnings were also typical of the marque, with a steel tubular front axle supported by 36-inch full-elliptic springs and lever arm Houdaille shocks, while the solid rear axle rested on 42-inch full-elliptic springs and used the same shocks. Braking was by a 14-inch drum behind every 19-inch wire wheel, operated with Lockheed hydraulics.
Working from 1982 through 1984, Walt restored the car's cosmetics, spending the most time repairing the body's ash frame with help from wood craftsman Paul Fitzpatrick and body specialist Bob Patchke. "I felt the integrity was in the car's originality, so instead of replacing the rotten sills entirely, we saved what we could, splicing in and epoxying new wood to the old. The entire cowl was replaced because that wood was gone. The cowl's aluminum skin had been age-hardening since 1930, so we had to pull every nail and remove the metal without cracking it--this took a lot of patience."
They discovered a few things that spoke of the car's one-off nature, too. "It took the Franklin workers three tries of drilling holes to get the left rear fender, splash apron and body in line. You could imagine them saying, 'Well that one didn't work, let's move it down another inch.' The right side was fine, so obviously, they'd started on the left," he laughs. "And when I stripped down the dashboard, I found hammer marks on both ends, five inches tall and about six inches wide--someone was beating on this thing, trying to make it fit!"
When it came time to paint and trim the car, Walt followed Enos Derham's originally envisioned color scheme, rather than the one that Franklin chose, which meant using a period metallic Shell Gray nitrocellulose lacquer instead of tan, with dark blue hides and blue-piped gray wool interior trim. Even the underside was special: "All of the Franklin sedans, and most of the customs, had their frames, axles, springs and brake backing plates painted black. On this car, only the chassis was black--everything else was fender color. I did this, and it looked nice, but it was obviously done for eye-catching display in a ballroom, because it got filthy on the road. After about three years, I got tired of wiping off axles and springs, and sprayed everything black."
Rear seat passengers enjoy a cigar lighter and ashtray in beautiful inlaid wood, as well as a mirror and vanity. The rear seat bottom folds up for parcels, and the individual driver's seat--a Derham-designed seat not shared with other Franklins--is adjustable for reach, via a roughly 10-inch-long, one-inch diameter screw. Walt says, "It will take five minutes of turning, but it will move the seat back. A six-foot-four person can comfortably drive the car, as can somebody who's five-foot-three."
Despite its rarity, Walt enjoys driving this special Franklin, having added about 50,000 miles in his 38 years of ownership. Like any older car, it has its quirks. Walt told us, "For a closed car, it has a very low windshield. The center of the windshield is 8 inches deep, and the edges are 10 inches. It's fine driving down the road, because you have a fairly broad expanse and you don't have to look up, but it's a different story in town. If you sit at a traffic light and want to see the light overhead, you have to lean over and crane your neck, or stop about a car and a half-length back. I bought Model A wiper blades for it, but had to cut them down to 6 1/2 inches to make them work. I have driven it in the rain, a lot.
"It's a very easy car to drive. I've driven many cars from that era, and most had semi-elliptic springs, but this Franklin has full-elliptic springs, like under a baby carriage. It also has a tubular front axle instead of a cast-iron beam, so the ride is very comfortable. The Gemmer worm-and-roller steering makes it feel nimble, which is surprising for a car that weighs 4,850 pounds, about 650 more than a five-passenger Sedan of the day. The drum brakes stop the car well--they're not like today's power-assist four-wheel disc brakes that bring a car to a screeching halt, but they're adequate if you respect them.
"It's a great long distance road car. It will cruise along at 55-60 MPH, up or down hills, and it doesn't have a special high-speed rear. None of the big classics of this era will snap your neck going off of the line, but it doesn't take forever to get to 50 MPH--you just go through the gears and allow time between shifts," Walt continues. "It has four forward speeds, but first gear is low-low--it's good if you need to push a house off its foundation. In all of the years I've owned this car, I've used first maybe three or four times. You start in second, which is where first normally is in the shift pattern--first is towards you and down."
Since the Sportsman's Coupé shares garage space with three other vintage automobiles, it's not driven as often these days, but the Gosden family still adds about 500 miles a year. Walt carefully maintains it: "The distributor cap and other ignition components are shared with early 1950s Chevys, and Gemmer steering boxes can wear badly, but new bearings are available and they can be rebuilt. The Champion D-16 spark plugs are available over the counter, because they were common in forklifts," he says. "I change the oil with Castrol GTX 10W-30 and lube the suspension once a year. For its appearance, I keep it under a car cover and wash it as needed, probably two or three times a year."
Will this Salon car's longest owner ever sell it? "Everybody has a bucket list. There are other cars on my bucket list, but to get them, I'd have to part with this one. There have been times where I think, gee, I'd really like to own that, but I get back in the Franklin and drive it, or just sit back and look at it, and I think, 'am I nuts?' "
Owner's View
"It's amazing that it was saved... through the scrap drives and despite the fact it was an outmoded orphan, they thought it was special enough to save. According to the 2007 Franklin Club roster, only 16 custom-bodied Franklins from the Classic era are known to exist. There have been rumors that one of the other two De Luxe Sportsman's Coupés has survived, but no proof has surfaced. I think it would be great to see two or three of them parked next to each other at a meet." -- Walt GosdenSPECIFICATIONSBase price -- $5,800Options on dR car -- Double taillamps, $13.50; draft deflectors, $25; fender strips, $13; script nameplate, $3.75; hinge mirror $12.50; Pilot Ray lamp, $35; metal spare tire cover, $17; horns - trumpet, matched pair with special brackets, $40Total cost -- $5,977.25 FOB Syracuse, New York
ENGINE Type -- Inline-six, overhead valves, detachable aluminum cylinder heads, individual cast-iron cylinders, aluminum crankcase
Displacement -- 274.2 cubic inches
Bore x Stroke -- 3.50 x 4.75 inches
Compression ratio -- 5.3:1
Horsepower @ RPM -- 100 @ 3,100
Torque @ RPM -- 182-lbs.ft. @ 1,600
Main bearings -- 7
Fuel system -- Stromberg U3 1 1/2-inch one-barrel updraft carburetor, mechanical fuel pump
Lubrication system -- Full pressure
Electrical system -- 6-volts
Exhaust system -- Cast-iron manifold, single exhaust
Cooling system -- Sirocco blower, directly connected to crankshaft
TRANSMISSION
Type -- Warner four-speed manual, sliding gear with floor shift
Ratios:
1st -- 3.494:1
2nd -- 1.999:1
3rd -- 1.278:1
4th -- 1.000:1
Reverse -- 2.814:1
Clutch -- Brown-Lipe single dry disc, 11.875 inches
DIFFERENTIAL
Type -- Spiral bevel, semi-floating drive axles
Ratio -- 4.54:1
STEERING
Type -- Gemmer worm and roller
Ratio -- 18:1
Turns, lock-to-lock -- 3.25
Turning circle -- 43 feet
BRAKES
Type -- Lockheed internal expanding four-wheel hydraulic drums
Front -- 14 inches
Rear -- 14 inches
Total lining area -- 242 square inches
CHASSIS & BODY
Construction -- Steel channel section chassis, aluminum body over hardwood framing
Body style -- Two-door, four-passenger coupe
Layout -- Front engine, rear-wheel drive
SUSPENSION
Front -- Tubular axle; 36-inch full-elliptic leaf springs, Houdaille lever hydraulic shock absorbers
Rear -- Solid axle; 42-inch full-elliptic leaf springs, Houdaille lever hydraulic shock absorbers
WHEELS & TIRES
Wheels -- Steel nipple-spoke wire
Front/rear -- 19 x 4.5 inches
Tires -- Lester bias-ply
Front/rear -- 19 x 6.50
WEIGHTS & MEASURES
Wheelbase -- 132 inches
Overall length -- 198 inches
Overall width -- 73.5 inches
Overall height -- 72 inches
Front track -- 58 inches
Rear track -- 60 inches
Shipping weight -- 4,850 pounds
CAPACITIES
Crankcase -- 6 quarts
Fuel tank -- 20 gallons
Transmission -- 5 quarts
Rear axle -- 3 pints
CALCULATED DATA
Bhp per cu.in. -- 0.37
Weight per bhp -- 48.5 pounds
Weight per cu.in. -- 17.7 pounds
PERFORMANCE
MPG -- 15 highway, 10-12 city
PRODUCTION
It's believed that three Airman Series 15 Model 153 "Sportsmans Coupés" were built by the Derham Body Co. in 1931; this is the only known survivor. Franklin built 2,851 cars that year.
PROS & CONS
+ Exclusivity and individuality ensured
+ Engineering fascination of air-cooled engine
+ Amazing ride and surprising performance